What Walks in the Night
by EvelynThursday
Summary: The Tardis brings the Fam to an Iron Age village at Halloween. What is the 'Beast' that they are scared of?


_Happy Doctor Who Day! Or almost, it's just turned the next day in my time zone. Have you seen the new series trailer? So excited for it to start!_

_This was originally written for the now defunct second edition of the Thirteen Fanzine but is now revised, extended and posted here._

_Please excuse any historical inaccuracies, this was pieced together from the stuff I remember learning during my archaeological degree 10 years ago, TV documentaries and the little research I gathered before getting distracted as I love this period of history (you do not want to know just how long I spent reading about the domestication of the carrot just for a passing mention that never made it to the final edit)._

_Samhain is pronounced 'sow-een' or 'sow-en' or other similar variations._

* * *

"Welcome to Echlot Major, the best cultural and shopping center on this side of the galaxy," said the Doctor as she stepped out of the Tardis. She stopped, looking around. "Or not."

"This looks nothing like a shopping center, Doc," said Graham, shaking wet mud off his shoes. "Unless their culture involves bare fields and a few thatched farm buildings."

"It looks like we are back in the 17th century," said Yaz, pausing at the door of the Tardis. "If we are can we visit Willa?"

The Doctor stuck her tongue out then drew it back in again, sucking it against the top of her mouth a few times as if she was eating something delicious.

"Same planet, wrong century, sorry Yaz."

"So when are we?" Asked Ryan as he pushed past Yaz and jumped over the muddy patch Graham had stepped in.

The Doctor crouched down and stuck a finger in the dirt, licking the dirty digit.

"Oh not again." Graham scrunched his face up and looked away. "Doc, that's gross."

"About two and a half thousand years before your time. Not a bad time, the mead might not taste the best but it has a right kick. Shall we go and explore?"

* * *

They set off across the landscape, the dark skies above threatening rain and casting a dark feeling across the landscape, highlighting the bare trees and the few straggly leaves still clinging onto their gnarled branches. They followed a track that headed towards the cluster of buildings in the distance, soon descending down into a valley, the small, thin fields disappearing behind thick hedges. Everything was quiet, even the birds seemed loath to sing.

"It is just me," asked Ryan quietly to his granddad, "or does everything feel a bit, well, weird?"

"Everything with the Doc feels weird." Graham replied. "But I know what you mean."

The Doctor on the other hand seemed unaffected, lolloping gait as sure as always as she led them onwards.

Within a few minutes the tops of the thatched building came into view and with it came the sound of cows and sheep and people calling to each other.

"Weylyn! Catch that horse!"

After the cry there was a thundering of hooves and from around the corner came a large mottled brown and black pony. Yaz, Ryan and Graham scattered to the side of the path but the Doctor stood firm, arms spread wide. The horse skidded to a stop and reared up with a whinny, hooves barely missing the Doctor. She didn't even flinch and instead spoke calming words to the frantic animal.

"It's ok...the humans wont hurt you…well I'll have a word with them about that…the sheep are harmless, probably just as scared as you...it's gathering time, you'll be back in your pasture in no time…"

Surprisingly, despite the continued stomping of hooves, the horse seemed to be calming down. Yaz couldn't believe it but peeled herself away from the bush where she had sheltered.

"Are you understanding that horse?" She asked as the others untangled themselves from the vegetation.

"Yeah, course," was the reply. "And this poor thing just had a bit of a fright."

The Doctor reached up and gave the horse a scratch on its forehead. The hooves stilled.

"Lynet! Lynet!" The calls came closer and a young man ran up the lane. He was dressed in checked trousers in orange and yellow, a cream front-laced linen shirt and a green cloak wafted behind him as he ran.

The man slowed when he saw the Doctor had control of the horse. "Thank Epona you caught her. I thought she would have been the other side of the hills by now." He swept back the long, red hair that had fallen in his face with a hand.

"She's ok, just a bit scared." The Doctor continued to run her fingers through Lynet's mane as the horse starting nosing into her coat.

"Thank you for stopping her. The sheep got loose and she spooked. I wouldn't like her lost on the hills tonight, the beast might get her." He ran his hand down the horse's flank. "She's a good girl, just rather skittish. Aren't you, darling?" He laughed as Lynet started nipping at his shirt. He brushed her off and pulled a chunk of cheese out of his pocket. The horse immediately snatched it out of his hand.

"Hang on, did you say beast?"

"Yes, it's Samhain, the night when the beast walks and feeds on anyone or anything left on the hills." He looked at them, confused. "You're not local, are you? You'd better come to the village with me, it won't be safe to sleep under the stars tonight and you won't be able to walk to the closest village before nightfall."

He turned back the way he came, Lynet obediently trotting beside him.

The Doctor bounced on her toes and a grin lit up her face.

"Come on Fam, let's go and find out more about this 'beast'."

"Do we really have to?" moaned Graham. "I'd rather spend a night in a place with central heating."

"Don't be so glum, Graham. Anyway, we might not do much sleeping, sounds like we've got a mystery to investigate." She bounced away, Yaz following.

"Come on Granddad," Ryan clapped him on the arm, "think of it as living in a history book. Surely you must've done history at school."

"History was never my forte," he groused but followed the retreating Doctor's back all the same.

* * *

The village was a cluster of round, thatched huts, ten or perhaps a little more, all partially sunken into the ground and surrounded by a ring of raised earth and a ditch. Between the huts were a mass of cattle, corralled by a group of people herding them towards a stone walled pen at the other end of the village. The other pens contained sheep, pigs, goats and horses.

Their guide hung back with Lynet as the cows were shepherded into the stone pen and held there with a wooden gate but approached a man with a thick gold torc around his neck once the cattle were confined.

"These travellers caught Lynet," he said to the man. "They didn't know about the beast so I offered them space at the feast."

"All are welcome. Medredydd get Lynet back with the rest of the horses." Another man came forward and led the horse away, giving the pen of bleating sheep a wide berth.

"I'm sorry, I never introduced myself," said their guide after he crossed back across the village center with the other gold adorned man. "I'm Weylyn and this is Elgine, Chief of the village."

"I'm the Doctor and these are my friends Yaz, Ryan and Graham. We are honoured to meet the Chief and to be offered shelter tonight. Weylyn told us that there was a beast in the area."

"You were lucky that Weylyn found you," said Elgine, wiping his hands on his blue wool cloak. "The beast roams every Samhain night. It crosses from the Otherworld to feast as we feast, taking those outside the ring of fire. You will need to choose whether to stay in the village tonight or participate in our feast, you are welcome at either but you will not be able to change your mind once darkness falls." The Doctor dipped her head respectfully.

"Thank you. We will let you know of our decision before the sun sets."

* * *

"Sow-een?" Muttered Graham to the Doctor after Weylyn and Elgine rejoined the rest of the villagers.

"It's the feast at the beginning of the new year," she replied, peering at the collection of huts surrounding them.

"New year? But it's still autumn, not Christmas yet."

"We are currently about five hundred years before the birth of Christ, your Iron Age. Samhain is what will become Halloween and is both the end and start of the year, marked by great celebration and feasting. This 'beast' is rather unexpected."

"Do you think it is to do with aliens?" Asked Yaz.

"Possibly, the Tardis brought us here for a reason."

"Not just your bad driving, then."

"Oi! I resent that comment, Ryan. I can drive the Tardis perfectly well, she just has a mind of her own sometimes."

"So what now?" Asked Graham, kicking a loose stone with his shoe.

"Now we explore. We need to know the area in daylight so we can find our way around later."

"So we're not saying for the feast?"

"Sorry Graham. But we might make it back, the feasting usually continues until dawn."

* * *

The foursome soon left the busy village and the sound of animals behind them as they made their way towards an open area at the top of the nearby hill. From a distance they could see people walking between mounds silhouetted on the skyline and the smoke of huge bonfires already roaring.

As they approached they could see that there was a ring of wood surrounding the two long mounds, bundles of sticks and reeds and grasses tied together to make an uncrossable fence. The Doctor spotted an entrance into the ring and led her friends towards it.

"Now be careful in here," she said, "you are about to walk on sacred grounds. These barrows are where the dead of the village are buried. Don't walk over them and don't go into them, got it?" She gave them a stare until she got three nods in return.

The barrows were impressive up close, taller than a man standing on another's shoulders and longer than two bus lengths long and another bus length wide with a stone lined entrance covered with a cow skin. A woman hurried up to them.

"Excuse me? What are you doing here?"

"I'm the Doctor and these are my friends. Your chief offered to let us stay tonight as it is too far to walk to the next village. And he says that there is a beast in the area. What do you know about it?" The woman seemed to relax.

"Greetings, I am Fianna, Elgine is my husband. As you are here would you and your friends mind helping us? We have a lot of work still to do and nightfall is approaching. But I will be happy to tell you anything you wish to know."

Graham, Ryan and Yaz were quickly put to work moving bundles of sticks around the circle as the Doctor chatted to Fianna as they moved from fire to fire, checking the turning carcases on spits and stirring huge caldrons, Fianna sometimes halting mid-sentence to shout instructions to someone before continuing the conversation.

* * *

At nightfall work stopped and everyone gathered outside the ring to watch the village as two fires were lit and the shapes of animals passed between them.

"It's to bless the animals for the next year," whispered the Doctor to her friends as they huddled together in the cooling air. "Fianna told me of a stone circle nearby where they offer sacrifices to the beast. I think that is the best place to investigate once the ceremony has started." Soon the animals below had been corralled back into the village and the remaining villagers travelled towards the top of the hill.

"Ancestors bless and protect us in the next year," said Elgine, now clad in a wolfskin cloak and standing on a rough hewn bench, as everyone congregated inside the circle. He held up a burning torch, lit from a nearby fire and waved it over the crowd before burying it in the wood bundle fence, which quickly set alight, soon surrounding everyone in a warm glow.

"Let's go," whispered the Doctor to her friends, slipping quietly between the crowd as Elgine continued to hold their attention. Yaz followed her, checking that Graham and Ryan were close behind. A few people looked in their direction but their attention was quickly diverted as a small procession, led by Fianna, entered one of the barrows.

They gathered by gap in the fire, checking wordlessly that they were all ready to proceed. At some point the Doctor had picked up a torch, which she lit as they passed between two walls of fire.

They left the safety of the fires behind them, clustering around the Doctor and the torch she held in one hand. In the other she brandished the sonic.

"I'm not getting any reading, either of technology or life signs. Let's get closer to the stone circle and see what we can find."

The humans drew their clothes tighter across themselves as the autumn night had a bite away from the warmth of the circle of fire and the torch cast more light than heat. The Doctor didn't seem to feel anything, eyes scrutinising the shadowy landscape and the readings from the sonic. Ahead loomed the dark shapes of stones, standing tall against the sky.

"We're here." The Doctor led them into the circle, using the light of the torch to examine the bodies of the cows left there. They were untouched. "Looks like we've got here first." She spun towards her friends huddled together. "I think the creature is afraid of light, that's why the villagers say they are safe within the fires. If we want it to come I need to put this torch out."

"Do you really have to?"

"Sorry Graham, I do. Or you can take it and go back to the villagers." He paused for a second to think.

"I'll stay here with you lot, safety in numbers and all that."

The Doctor nodded.

"Back in a bit."

Without the Doctor and her torch everything was dark, not pitch black but a world of dark shapes and shadows that was somehow worse than not seeing anything at all.

Graham found his hand wandering onto Yaz's arm, not sure if he wanted to feel the reassurance of someone beside him or offering her the same. Either way she did not shrug off the fingers that gripped her sleeve.

"Gang?" Came the Doctor's hushed voice from the shadows. "Stand next to the stones, you stand out against the sky where you are. We don't want to scare the creature off before we can see it."

The stones were only wide enough to shelter two of them so Yaz and Ryan paired up next to one leaving Graham to follow where he thought the Doctor's voice came from. An orange glow sparked up nearby and Graham was relieved to find the Doctor in the gloom.

"Ryan and Yaz are a few stones away. What do we do next?"

"Wait. Nothing's in range of the sonic yet."

"Oh joy," muttered Graham, looking out at the gloomy landscape and shivering.

* * *

It felt like hours later when the first footsteps thudded over the sound of the wind rustling the grass. Graham looked at the Doctor in alarm. Her eyes were shut, listening intently.

"It's on four paws," she whispered to him. "About five foot at the shoulder judging from the stride length and probably furred. It came from the copse at the bottom of the valley."

"You can hear all that?!"

She grinned at him, teeth shining in the darkness, activating the sonic, its lights hidden in her pocket. She squinted at the screen in the darkness. "Whatever this is it's not from Earth. But I don't know what it is."

It was a few more anxious moments before a large object appeared between the stones off to their left, opposite where Ryan and Yaz hid. It stopped just short of fully entering the circle.

_"Who comes in the darkness to deny me my meal?"_ Graham flinched at the booming voice. _"Do you wish to be eaten too? I am very hungry."_ The Doctor stepped forward, ignoring Graham's grasping hand and his hissed exclamation of_ "Doc!"_.

"I am the Doctor." The creature paused, focusing all it's attention on the blond as she stopped barely short of it's snout.

_"The Doctor. I did not ever believe that I would hear that hallowed name with my own ears. Are you really the traveller, traversing through space on their blue comet?" _

"That's me." It bent it's head down and ruffled the Doctor's hair with a snort.

_"You are … smaller than I imagined."_

"Oi! It's what's inside that counts, mate."

_"I apologise. But I am grateful that you are here, you may be the only one who can get me back home. But who are the other three I can see in the circle? They don't look like the humans of this area."_

"They're my friends." The Doctor turned and called to them. "Yaz, Graham, Ryan, it's safe to come over. He won't hurt you, he's just a long way from home."

Cautiously the three humans made their way towards their friend and the thing that towered over her. Closer they could make out the shape of the 'beast'. It was as the Doctor said: five foot at the shoulder and furred. It's paws were the size of dinner plates, sharp teeth faintly glowing in the dark as were its six large eyes, four fangs extending over its lower jaw and two pointed saucer ears stood up on top of it's long, canine head. All in all, it looked like a giant alien wolf.

_"Greetings. I am Volket."_

"Tell me, how come you are light-years away from home?" Asked the Doctor.

_"I crashed several hundred cycles around this planet's star ago. I barely survived and there was nothing of my ship that could be saved. I hid myself until the darkness came and roamed where I had found myself. The humans were within a ring of fire so I could not approach but I managed to find some creatures to eat. I then dug myself a den and slept the cycle away. Every cycle since on this night I have found creatures to eat, first ones in herds far away from the fires then creatures killed and left here as they protected their herds within their fires. I had hoped that the humans would be able to help me but I have learned that they are too primitive. I had thought that I would spend the rest of my life here but you have given me hope that I will see my home again."_

"You will, Volket. My blue comet and I will take you home."

_"Thank you, Doctor."_ Volket bowed his head. _"I will be forever indebted to you."_

* * *

They started in the direction of the Tardis, aiming to keep the fires of the village to their left.

"Can you see in this darkness?" Asked Ryan, who had tripped over a stone for the fifth time. Graham and Yaz had fared little better, unlike the Doctor who hadn't put a step wrong.

"Just about, my eyes are better than yours."

_"And my eyes are better than yours, Doctor," _said Volket. _"If you will let me I can carry you all back to your comet, if you just tell me the way."_

"A ride on the back of a giant wolf?" Exclaimed Ryan. "Cool."

Volket was kind enough to lie down but it was still an effort to climb onto his back, the Doctor giving Ryan, Graham and Yaz a leg up before attempting to leap the height herself. She failed, landing in a tangle of limbs at the wolf's side, grumbling to herself about short legs but accepted Yaz and Ryan's hands that soon got her settled at the front of the group.

_"Hold on tight!"_ Volket's voice rumbled through them and they all took hold of the wolf's fur, and each other. And in a bound they were off, lurching across the landscape.

Graham could hear Yaz, Ryan and the Doctor giggling in delight (not that Ryan or the Doctor would ever admit to 'giggling') whilst he just concentrated on staying on. This wasn't fun, this was terrifying!

Four huge paws covered the distance to the Tardis quickly, if a little coldly - the wind slipping through their clothes and biting with chill. The light through the Tardis windows were a welcome relief for all.

The Doctor leapt off Volket's back as the others scrambled their way down, opening the Tardis doors with her key. She let her friends get into the warmth before her, stopping to watch the wolf stare at the box in wonder.

_"This is your comet? It's so small."_

"She's bigger on the inside, you'll see. Just stay there for a sec, I need to turn the lights down." She disappeared for a few seconds then reappeared, the light spilling out of the doors behind her now a dim glow. "You can come in now, let me know if it's still too bright."

Volket seemed to find the inside more wondrous than the outside and couldn't stop looking at everything.

"Shouldn't we tell the villagers that the 'beast' has gone?" Asked Yaz as the Doctor started manipulating the console controls.

"They're smart," she replied, flicking a switch with a flourish, "they'll work it out. Time to take our new friend home."

A grin and the press of a leaver and they were hurtling through the time vortex once more.

"Does this mean we're not going back to the feast?"


End file.
